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Test sites

In 2002, the Test Track consisted of a 700m long test strip, with various asphalt mix designs, embedded sensors, various weigh in motion devices, wireless data transmission, trenchless and trenched installations of high density polyethylene pipe and geogrid reinforcement. Now, the Test Track is 1294m long and 8m wide. It includes fifteen different types of pavement including the five original asphalt surface mixes: Hot-Laid 3 (HL3), Polymer-Modified Asphalt HL3 (PMA), Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA), SuperPave, Conventional Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) with 15% Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA), JPCP with 30% RCA, JPCP with 50% RCA, and a Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) section. The first portions of the Test Track were constructed in June 2002, which contain two control sections (HL3-1, HL3-2) and three flexible sections (PMA, SMA, SuperPave). the PMS section is further divided into two sections, half of which is reinforced with a BX 1200 biaxial geogrid. The JPCP sections were constructed in June 2007 with a control section and varying percentages of RCA including: 50%, 30%, 15% and 0%. The last section of the Test Track is a HL3 RAS mix design and it was constructed in 2009.

There are also four interlocking concrete pavement crosswalks with different bedding materials located at the first section, within the first control HL3-1 section. The centreline of the first crosswalk is located at 0+060, and the following ones are located at 0+070, 0+080 and 0+090 of the Test Track. The Test Track enjoys two loading frequencies. The southbound lanes have heavy loaded trucks moving garbage, and the northbound lane has unloaded trucks. This have provided excellent information on the impact of loaded trucks on pavements.

The primary objective of the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) Test Track is to investigate the impact of axle loads and environment on flexible and rigid pavement structure. Also, to compare the performance of various innovative paving materials through various measurements. Some of the pictures below show the Test Track when it was first constructed and also more recent pictures of the Test Track now.